Description
About blooming bradeana x flabellata
This is the blooming bradeana x flabellata listing: plants from our Tillandsia bradeana x flabellata base listing, shipped while they are in colour and spike. It is stocked only when a crop comes into bloom.
The show starts before the spike. As bloom approaches, the glossy strap leaves flush from lime green to red and burgundy, the bradeana half of the cross, and the whole rosette glows.
Then the spike comes: branched like flabellata, with red bracts and violet flowers, held above the leaves. Seedlings vary, so some plants carry a simpler spike and some a full candelabra.
We grade blooming plants as smalls from 4 inches, mediums from 6, larges from 8 and extra-larges of 12 to 14 inches wide. The extra-larges are mature plants in full display.
A tank plant in bloom holds its colour for weeks, and the bracts last after the flowers. Once it fades, the mother pups from the base, so a retail buyer gets a second and third plant from the purchase.
Growing blooming bradeana x flabellata: Care Guide
This is a tank plant, in bloom or out. Keep the central cup filled with water, flush it weekly, and never invert the plant; the cup is what feeds the spike. Give it bright, indirect light to keep the burgundy blush without scorching the soft leaves, and keep it warm. Feed by adding diluted fertilizer to the cup water. Mount it level or pot it in orchid bark so the cup stays upright. After bloom, keep the cup full and the pups appear from the base within a few months.
- Light: Bright indirect light. No hot direct sun.
- Water: Keep the cup full. Flush with fresh water weekly.
- Drying: Do not invert. The cup should stay wet.
- Airflow: Good air circulation around the leaves.
- Temperature: 55°F to 95°F. It prefers warmth.
- Feeding: Add diluted TillyBoost Fertilizer to the cup water monthly.
- Mounting: Mount level, or pot in orchid bark or sphagnum.
- Pups: Two to four from the base after bloom.
See the base listing for year-round stock, browse more Currently in Bloom, or read our air plant care guide.
